In copending application Ser. No. 902,813, filed Sept. 2, 1986, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,055, which is a continuation-in-part of copending application Ser. No. 647,301, filed Aug. 30, 1984, for METHOD FOR SILYLATING AROMATIC IMIDES AND IMIDES MADE THEREFROM, now abandoned, various silyl imides are shown having nuclear-bound silicon atoms attached to aromatic imide radicals by silicon carbon linkages. These silyl imides can be synthesized by the use of a polysilane, such as dimethoxytetramethyldisilane and an effective amount of a transition metal catalyst, for example palladium. These reactants are used in combination with haloaromatic imide, for example, N-butyl-4-chlorophthalimide. In addition to various imidosilanes, 1,3-bisimidotetraorganodisiloxanes were also synthesized.
I have now found that a wide variety of imidopolysiloxanes also can be made by equilibrating the above-mentioned 1,3-bisimidotetraorganodisiloxane with cyclic organosiloxane, or cohydrolyzing imidoalkoxysilane with organoalkoxysilane, or imidohalosilane with organohalosilanes. In addition to equilibrating imidotetraorganodisiloxane with cyclic organosiloxane, there can be equilibrated imidocyclic siloxane with cyclic organosiloxane.
The imidopolysiloxanes which can be made in accordance with the practice of the present invention have an imide to silicon ratio of at least 0.01, and comprise at least three chemically combined units included within the formula, ##STR1## where R and R.sup.1 are selected from C.sub.(1-14) monovalent hydrocarbon radicals and C.sub.(1-14) monovalent hydrocarbon radicals substituted with neutral radicals, R.sup.2 is selected from C.sub.(6-14) trivalent aromatic hydrocarbon radicals and C.sub.(6-14) trivalent aromatic hydrocarbon radicals substituted with neutral radicals, a and b are whole numbers equal to 0 to 3 inclusive, and the sum of a+b has an average value of from about 1 to about 2.67 inclusive.